<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Bad moods and heart to hearts by StarryKnight09</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29444133">Bad moods and heart to hearts</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryKnight09/pseuds/StarryKnight09'>StarryKnight09</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Febuwhump 2021 [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Emotional Hurt/Comfort, FebuWhump2021, Gen, Irondad, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Pepper Potts Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:53:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,919</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29444133</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarryKnight09/pseuds/StarryKnight09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Petey!  You’re home!” Morgan bounded toward him and wrapped herself around his legs.</p><p>“Hey Mo.” He said quietly, her display of unbridled affection not melting his foul mood away like it usually would.</p><p> </p><p>Febuwhump Day 14: “I didn’t mean it”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker &amp; Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker &amp; Pepper Potts, Peter Parker &amp; Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Febuwhump 2021 [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138670</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>387</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Bad moods and heart to hearts</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Peter walked through the elevator doors into the penthouse, carrying his bad mood with him like a storm cloud.  It’d been a particularly horrible day.</p><p>Flash had been relentless with his teasing and harassment.  Usually Peter didn’t let it get to him, but both MJ and Ned had been out sick, so he’d felt more alone and exposed than usual.  And that might have been why Flash had decided to go for the jugular, picking and picking about his new family.  How he was just Tony’s charity case, and they’d only taken him in because they felt bad for him, and they weren’t really his family and never would be.  By far, the worst taunt had been that Tony probably regreted his decision to adopt him, but he couldn’t change his mind now because of how that would look in the press, so he was stuck with Peter.  That one had hurt.  Probably because similar doubts had plagued Peter ever since Tony had adopted him after the snap, when they’d found out May hadn’t survived the intervening five years.  </p><p>Logically, he knew he shouldn’t have doubts.  Not after Tony had moved his entire family back to the city just so Peter could keep going to Midtown with his friends.  Tony wouldn’t have done that if he didn't care about him.  But it didn’t matter.  Peter couldn’t just rationalize away his doubts.  At least once a day he wondered if Tony regretted taking him in, which was better than the once an hour when he’d first started living with him a few months ago, but it still wasn’t great.</p><p>“Petey!  You’re home!” Morgan bounded toward him and wrapped herself around his legs.</p><p>“Hey Mo.” He said quietly, her display of unbridled affection not melting his foul mood away like it usually would.</p><p>“Hi Peter.” Pepper smiled at him from the kitchen as she poured hot water into a thermos to make her usual tea.</p><p>“Hey Pepper.” He greeted back, trying to smile but not quite managing it.  Luckily, she seemed too distracted to notice.</p><p>“Peter do you mind watching Morgan for a few minutes while I make a quick call?” Pepper asked.</p><p>“Sure.” He shrugged.</p><p>“Thank you.  You’re a lifesaver.”</p><p>“It’s no problem.”</p><p>Pepper smiled at him again before taking her tea and walking toward her home office for a little privacy.</p><p>“Yay!  Let’s play!” Morgan let go of him and jumped up and down in excitement before tearing away back toward the living room where she had an assortment of toys strewn all over the floor.</p><p>Peter let his backpack drop to the ground by the door.  He knew Tony hated it when he did that because the man had tripped over it more than once, but Peter didn’t feel like walking it all the way to his room just to appease his guardian.  May had never cared where he left his backpack.  And yeah, Peter knew it was rude to disregard Tony’s rules, especially since there were so few of them, but he couldn’t bring himself to care today. </p><p>“Peter hurry up!” Morgan commanded impatiently.  </p><p>“I’m coming.” He mumbled and walked over.</p><p>“What are we building?” He asked, trying to gather some enthusiasm as he took a seat on the floor across from Morgan and her Legos.  He didn’t want to make Morgan a victim of his bad mood.</p><p>“Elsa’s castle.” Morgan answered and pushed the directions his way, pointing at the step she was on.  “We’re doing this part.”</p><p>“Ok.” He started searching the floor for the right pieces.</p><p>“Oh!  I almost forgot!” Morgan said, sitting up straighter with a wide smile.  “Guess what.”</p><p>“What?” </p><p>“It’s sibling day at school next Friday.  Can you come?” She asked, so eager she was practically bouncing where she sat.</p><p>“Um, what?” The words didn’t compute.</p><p>“Sibling day.” Morgan explained slower as if that would help him understand.  “Next Friday.  Can you come?”</p><p>“Why would I come?” He asked, still not understanding.</p><p>Morgan tilted her head and frowned at him.  “Because you’re my brother.  Duh.”</p><p>Peter blinked.  Of course he’d noticed that’s what Morgan called him and Tony and Pepper referred to him that way too when they were talking about him, but he didn’t think they really meant it.  Like he wasn’t actually her brother.  Not real enough to show up at her school and play that role anyway.</p><p>“No I’m not.” He denied without thinking.</p><p>Morgan looked like he’d slapped her.  She stared at him for a long few seconds before her frown deepened and her lips pursed angrily.  “Yes you are.”</p><p>“No, I’m not.” He repeated, not sure why he was bothering to argue with a six year old.</p><p>“Yes.  You are.” Morgan countered, growing even more adamant, along with louder.  Tony always joked that she had Pepper’s temper, which meant it took a lot to anger her, but once you succeeded, she exploded like a firework.  Peter had to take his word for it.  He’d still never actually seen Pepper angry.</p><p>“I’m not.” He said, quieter, trying to deescalate the argument even as he refused to concede.</p><p>“Yes you are!” Morgan yelled throwing a handful of Legos at him.  “Why are you lying?”</p><p>“I’m not.”</p><p>“You are!” She stood and stamped her foot, crossing her arms in front of her chest, the very image of upset child.</p><p>“Hey, what’s going on in here?” Pepper asked, appearing out of nowhere.  In the short amount of time he’d been living with them, Peter had realized Pepper had some kind of super Mom sense for trouble, sort of like his spidey sense for danger.</p><p>“Um, nothing.” Peter said quickly, cheeks flaming at the thought of Morgan explaining their argument to her Mom.</p><p>“Nuh uh.” Morgan complained.  “Peter’s lying.”  She pointed a finger down at him.</p><p>“And what’s Peter lying about?” Pepper asked, one eyebrow arching up.</p><p>“Nothing.” He repeated, knowing his embarrassment was shining through.  “It’s nothing.  Morgan, you’re right.  I’m sorry.”  He caught Morgan’s eyes, silently pleading for her to let it go.  If they had to have a discussion about his exact role and his appropriate title in this family, he might die of mortification.</p><p>Morgan studied him for a few seconds, but she must’ve seen his fear, or the apology had been sufficient, because she gave him a nod and sat back down.  </p><p>“Ok.” She said and went back to searching for Legos, her previous anger completely forgotten.  God, he didn’t deserve her.  If she actually was his sister, she’d make a really good one.  He obviously wouldn’t be a very good big brother.  </p><p>Why had he turned that into such a big thing?  He should’ve just let her have her way.  The only reason he could come up with was that Flash had worn him down all day today over that exact topic until it felt like an exposed nerve and then Morgan had plucked it.</p><p>Pepper wandered back to the kitchen, obviously not interested in digging into it now that there didn’t seem to be a problem.  Peter let out an internal sigh of relief.  And although playing Legos with Morgan was the last thing he felt like doing, he made himself sit there and do just that.  He owed her that at least.  After another thirty minutes she was back to her normal energetic self and they’d made it almost halfway through the castle.  Peter always went slow on purpose so Morgan ended up doing most of it herself.  She was certainly smart enough.  At six she was already doing the 12+ Lego boxes.</p><p>“Wow this is looking really good.” He told her as he plastered on a smile.  “But I have to go do some homework.  Can we finish it later?”</p><p>“I guess.” Morgan nodded, putting the pieces in her hand down and reaching for a nearby plastic tub filled with crayons and coloring books.  “I can do something else until you come back.”</p><p>“Thanks.” He leaned forward to kiss the top of her head before standing.  He didn’t feel like doing homework, and he didn’t really have to since it was a Friday, but Morgan didn’t know that.  Mainly he just needed some alone time to decompress and try to get out of this funk.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>“Knock knock.” He heard Tony say though the music blasting from his earbuds.  Before he could tell him to come in, the man cracked open the door and peeked his head in.  “You decent?”</p><p>“Well even if I wasn’t you’re already in here, so…” He griped from where he lay on top of his covers in bed.  His bad mood from earlier still hadn’t completely dissipated, although listening to music had helped some.</p><p>“No I’m not.  I’m still standing outside.” Tony joked, pushing the door all the way open and gesturing toward his body, which still remained outside the door’s threshold.  “So, can I come in?”</p><p>Peter rolled his eyes.  “Of course.”  He pulled the earbuds out of his ears and sat up.  “When did you get back?”</p><p>“About an hour ago.” Tony answered, coming in and closing the door behind him.  That was odd.  Usually they only had the heart to hearts behind closed doors.  “You’d know that if you weren’t trying to blast away your super hearing.”</p><p>Peter didn’t say anything to that, already picking up on Tony’s body language.  The man was fidgeting with the cuffs of his shirt sleeves, something he only did when he was anxious, which usually only happened lately when they had to have a ‘serious talk’.  Great.  The evidence wasn’t stacking up in his favor.</p><p>“What’s going on?” He asked with suspicion.  Whatever it was, he’d rather just get it over with.</p><p>“How’s the homework going?” Tony asked, ignoring his question as he walked over to sit on the edge of his bed.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“The homework.  That’s what you told Morgan you were doing in here, right?”</p><p>“Oh.  Yeah…” He’d forgotten that’d been his excuse.</p><p>“Funny, it must be kind of hard to do since you left your backpack in front of the door again.  I almost broke my neck tripping on it earlier.”</p><p>Peter swallowed his smile.  So that’s what this was about.  He was going to get a talking to about breaking the stupid backpack rule.  This should be interesting.  Tony wasn’t the best at playing the stern parent role.  </p><p>“Sorry.” He mumbled, the vision of Tony tripping over his heavy backpack making it harder to keep his face straight.</p><p>“Yeah yeah go ahead.  You can laugh.  I know you want to.”</p><p>Peter snorted.</p><p>“But seriously, you need to stop leaving your backpack there kid or one of these days I actually am going to break my neck.”</p><p>He tried to look appropriately chastised, but his smile probably made it less than convincing.</p><p>“I’ll try to remember.” He said with a nod, thinking the conversation was over, but Tony didn’t move to get up.  Instead, the man continued to stare at him as he thrummed his fingers against the mattress.  It was slightly unnerving.  “Was there…something else?”</p><p>Tony sighed and rubbed a hand over his beard before speaking, “Just one more thing.  Morgan said the two of had an argument earlier.”</p><p>Peter hadn’t been expecting that.  His eyes widened for a second before he remembered to school his expression, but he wasn’t sure how well he succeeded.  His heart pounded in his chest, and he was glad Tony didn’t have the super hearing to notice it.  He didn’t want to talk about this.  He couldn’t talk about this.  Especially with Tony.  As soon as he realized Tony was studying his reaction, he looked down as if he suddenly found the earbuds in his hands interesting.</p><p>“It was nothing.  It’s fine.” He mumbled and internally begged for the man to just drop it.  To let it go so he wouldn’t have to live with the embarrassment of talking about it.</p><p>“Didn’t sound like nothing to me.” Tony argued but his voice remained gentle without a hint of reprimand.  “You told her you weren’t her brother.”</p><p>He clenched his jaw.  Oh god, they were going to talk about it.  </p><p>“Look I’m sorry ok.  I didn’t mean it.” He said, flicking his earbuds around, not able to meet Tony’s eyes.</p><p>“You didn’t mean it, or you didn’t mean to hurt her feelings?” Tony asked in clarification and of course he'd hit the nail right on the head.</p><p>Peter shrugged instead of answering but the heat of Tony’s stare made him shift uncomfortably.</p><p>“See, I think you did mean it.” Tony said once it became obvious Peter had no intention of answering.  “I don’t think you wanted to hurt Morgan’s feelings, but I think you really don’t consider yourself her brother.”</p><p>He garnered enough courage to finally meet Tony’s eyes and answer with another shrug, “I’m not.”</p><p>Tony’s face fell and he shook his head sadly.  “That’s where you’re wrong kid.  I think we got our wires crossed somewhere.”</p><p>Peter frowned.</p><p>“Have you really not heard me and Pepper calling you Morgan’s brother for the last few months?”</p><p>“Well, yeah, but that doesn’t make it true.” He mumbled, going back to playing with the earbuds in his hands.</p><p>It was Tony’s turn to frown.  “Really?  And why is that?  Walk me through your thought process.”</p><p>“Pepper’s not my mom and you’re not—” He came up short, the words refusing to come out because of how untrue they felt.  </p><p>“I’m not what?” Tony prompted looking like he was steeling himself for a blow.</p><p>“You’re not my…biological dad.”  Adding the biological part was the only way he could make himself say it.  It was true after all.  He wasn’t lying.</p><p>Tony sighed.  “You’re right.  Biologically you’re not my son.”</p><p>And ouch.  That hurt more than he thought it would. </p><p>“But,” Tony continued on, “that doesn’t mean I’m not your dad.”</p><p>Peter’s eyes shot up to meet Tony’s in surprise.  Neither of them had ever used that word to describe what Tony was to him, even though technically the man had adopted him.  It’d still taken Peter over a month to cave to his request to call him Tony.  And even though secretly, in the deepest recesses of his brain, sometimes he thought of the man that way, Peter had never called him…<em>that</em>.  The thought of calling him that to his face made his cheeks burn.</p><p>Tony reached out to pat his leg.  “I think part of this is my fault.  We’ve never really talked about this.  Pepper spearheaded the whole adoption process because I was otherwise laid up.” That was the understatement of the century.  Tony had come as close as anyone could to dying after snapping the gauntlet.</p><p>“And then the whole recovery process was a little distracting.” Another gross understatement. </p><p>“And then once I was finally back to myself, enough time had passed that I didn’t think we needed to have this talk.  But obviously we do.”</p><p>“And what talk is that?” He asked with feigned bravery.</p><p>“The talk where I tell you I didn’t just adopt you on a whim.  Or because you didn’t have anyone else.  Look, I know that before the snap, I wasn’t exactly great at talking about feelings, but I think I’ve gotten better over the past five years, so I want you to know that even before Thanos, I was already starting to see you as a sort of son figure, even though I knew you didn’t need a dad.  But losing you…” Tony took a deep calming breath before continuing, “It took losing you for me to realize how much I loved you.”</p><p>Peter felt tears prickle in his eyes.</p><p>“I love you kid.” Tony repeated.  “Pepper might’ve made the decision to adopt you without my go ahead, but she knew she didn’t need it because she knew I loved you.  And that’s why I adopted you.  The only reason.  Not because I felt sorry for you, or I felt like I had to, or because I was trying to do it for good PR.  God knows where that last one came from, since why would I need a bump in my PR after saving the universe?”</p><p>Peter let out a wet laugh.  All the rumors and the articles in the media saying as much had bothered him, but he’d never admitted it to Tony.  Obviously they’d bothered the other man too.</p><p>“I adopted you because I wanted to.  Because I love you.  No other reason.  Got it?”</p><p>Peter surreptitiously wiped his eyes and nodded, not trusting his voice.</p><p>But Tony wasn’t done yet.  “Adopted.  Biological.  It doesn’t matter.  I love you and Morgan the same.  You’re both my kids.  So that makes you Morgan’s brother.  Agreed?”</p><p>“Ok.  Agreed.” He said, voice cracking over the words.</p><p>“Good.” Tony nodded as if that settled everything.  “Now give me a hug.”</p><p>He let out another watery laugh, but did as Tony said, and leaned forward to hug him, soaking in the familiar aroma of motor oil mixed with aftershave.  He closed his eyes and let himself be comforted.</p><p>“I love you too.” Peter whispered a moment later when he realized he hadn’t said it back yet.  He had, in fact, never said it, so he was surprised how easy the words slipped out.  Probably because they were true.</p><p>“I know.” Tony said back.  “Even when you don’t talk, I still hear you.  That’s a dad’s job.”</p><p>Peter hugged him tighter as all the stresses and concerns he’d been holding onto finally evaporated away.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Happy Valentine's Day!!  Since it was heart day I had to make Tony and Peter have a heart to heart.  Hope you enjoyed it!</p><p>Come hit me up on <a href="https://starryknight09.tumblr.com/">Tumblr!</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>